A path to the bilingual advantage: Pairwise matching of individuals. Issue 2 (10th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Czapka, Sophia; Wotschack, Christiane; Klassert, Annegret; Festman, Julia
• Is Part Of: Bilingualism. Volume 23:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 344
• Page End: 354
• Publication Date: 2020-03-10
• Subjects: executive functions, -- bilingualism, -- interference inhibition, -- pairwise matching, -- primary school children, -- background variables, -- lexicon size; Bilingualism -- Periodicals; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 404.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S1366728919000166
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1366-7289

Abstract

Abstract: Matching participants (as suggested by Hope, 2015) may be one promising option for research on a potential bilingual advantage in executive functions (EF). In this study we first compared performances in three EF-tasks of a naturally heterogeneous sample of monolingual (n = 69, age = 9.0 y) and multilingual children (n = 57, age = 9.3 y). Secondly, we meticulously matched participants pairwise to obtain two highly homogeneous groups to rerun our analysis and investigate a potential bilingual advantage. The initally disadvantaged multilinguals (regarding socioeconomic status and German lexicon size) performed worse in updating and response inhibition, but similarly in interference inhibition. This indicates that superior EF compensate for the detrimental effects of the background variables. After matching children pairwise on age, gender, intelligence, socioeconomic status and German lexicon size, performances became similar except for interference inhibition. Here, an advantage for multilinguals in the form of globally reduced reaction times emerged, indicating a bilingual executive processing advantage.